Farmer Friday - Midnight Edition

It's been an awkward day. Even that isn't the proper word to describe it but it's the best one I have.

Mis-remembered swap partner preferences.

Skipped complete steps on construction.

But swap items got made. Birthday presents were finished and mailed off.

And look. Desperately close to midnight I got a Farmer's Wife block done.

#59 Night and Day

I'd like to say this block came together quickly. But it didn't. Between the tiny triangles and my already slightly screwy day, I took this one rather slow.

That October deadline that I set for myself is looking dreadfully unlikely at the moment.

WiP Wednesday - Knots and Piles edition

My machine separation anxiety thankfully was only a 24 hour ordeal. Now I'm on the hunt for stickers to properly welcome it back home.
And a name.

I'm hoping with these updates it won't break on me again. Or that it'll magically transform itself into a Horizon.

I won't hold my breath.

Roundup: 

Completed!:

Present for M - AKA The Project that Broke my Machine

I highly doubt I'll be using Quilter's Grid again. Luckily I have two more samples from Pellon and Sulky of products to help me out with pixel quilts. After the terrible experience with the Grid, I'm really looking forward to the other products.

Also in this picture is the fabulous indoor line my husband installed for me as I was out running around to get my machine fixed. Best part is that it's portable and he installed hooks on other walls in the house and on the deck outdoors. "So that I have different light options." 

Love that man. Love him. The line hooks also double as canvas holders so I can start taking pictures for my etsy store. 

Best present ever. And it wasn't even a holiday. 

Makes me want to shop for cute clothes pins to hang blocks too. I'll add that in with my sticker hunt. 

Medallion: 

Has its own post written here

Ongoing: 


Scrap Vomit:

When I thought my machine was going to be out all week I moved my scrap vomit cutting to my desk. Now I've gotta clean it all up to set my machine up again. 

Sailor Mouth Swap: 

Knots and knots and knots. Oh..and some more knots.
This is where most of my time has been spent this week. I'm incredibly slow at making knots.

No Progress:
Weekender
WWC
Present A
Tetris QAL
Bottled Rainbows

Coming Soon:
Swoon
Hush Bella
ZZQAL
Mario QAL
Tardis


Finishes: 2
New: 0
WiPs: 7

Takin' my knots over to Lee's.

Hopefully next week they'll be in that completed pile. Otherwise I'll be in a bit of trouble.

Medallion Top - Finished!

I finished this top up on Thursday but I needed a few days of having it hanging around to make sure I was actually done.

The original pattern is a bit different than mine. I added more corner stones. In the first green border as well as the blue ones on the outside.

There's also another border of scrappy prints on the outside of the original. That's what I was hesitant about.

I haven't used white as a background solid before and the crisp edge of it had me thinking that I didn't want more prints on the outside of it. 

Instead I'm leaning towards making a wide scrappy binding. 

Between this top and my Grape Soda, I've now used every big piece of Tula's Prince Charming I had in my stash.

It was hard to cut. This one more so than Grape Soda since this stack really was the last I had. 

What's more surprising is that my favorite part of this quilt is the solid border.

I love it.

So much so that I've set aside the pieces I had left from this. While I'm leaning towards a patchwork quilt in solids, I'm still not sure. But that color range will show up again.

There's a ton of hand quilting to be done on this one so it'll be some time before I have a completed quilt to show off.

More than likely I'll be taking shots of the quilting as I work on it in Instagram. I'm sewallegorical on there ;)

Those of you that also took the Handstitched class will notice I don't have the embroidery in the first white border.
Something about it doesn't seem like a good fit for me. Thinking about doing layers of running stitch instead.

Of course, I'll be linking this up to the My Precious QAL since it's the last significant amount of my Prince Charming. 

At least I still have this big ol' bag of Tula Scraps to play with. 

Farmer Friday - Technical Difficulties

My machine has been acting up a little. Nothing big. It threw thread at me once but I was making it go through home dec cotton + fleece + quilt cotton. I would have thrown thread too.

I keep promising it "Just one more project and I'll take you to get serviced."

That was five projects ago.

Today it got revenge.

Poor 1/4" foot. I love you so.

I still don't know exactly how it happened. Me and my-still-unnamed-machine had been merrily sewing all morning. We finished quilting a wall hanging. We put on some binding.

Then when going to make a scrap vomit block before farmer's wife blocks...it hiccuped. And that black piece of my foot got bent down into the machine.

I don't trust myself enough to do Farmer Wife blocks without that foot. All those tiny little pieces that have to be just right.

Looks like my machine gets a break to go to the repair shop after all. And I get to place an order for a new foot.

You win this round machine.

I hope you know that we'll be making blocks double-time when you get back to still try and finish the FW top in Oct.

WiP Wednesday - Oh the Handstitching edition

Have I mentioned the three birthdays coming up for important people in my life?
I'm sure I have.

It's absolutely overtaking my sewing time. Late starts and all that.

And my brilliance picked an epic cross stitch for one of them.
I'm thinking that one won't get done. Unless I do nothing else for the next two weeks.


Roundup: 

Completed!:

Mr. Gnoma has his own post here

New:

I refuse to be afraid of this pattern anymore. 

Although I'd still place bets on me screwing it up somewhere along the way. 

Ongoing: 

Present M: No pic cause it's hanging out in the corner of my desk again. It needs borders and then I can finish it.

WWC: 

Finished a tester block for size and then cut out the rest of the pieces.

Sailor Mouth Swap:

Extreme close-up shot!
Started some knots. And figured out an extra item to send.

Present A: 

At least it's starting to look like something. Too bad it's part 1 of 9.

Medallion:

I had every intention of getting all the piecing for the top done. But I'm out of white solid. Which isn't surprising considering I hardly ever use it so I think I only had 1/2 yard on hand to begin with.

Tetris QAL: 

No Progress:
Bottled Rainbows

Coming Soon:
Swoon
Hush Bella
Tardis
ZZQAL
Mario QAL


Finishes: 1
New: 1
WiPs: 8

Strangely I woke up this morning thinking that I'd really have nothing to report for WiP Weds. this week.

Rather odd to feel so unproductive and yet see that I've gotten a decent bit done.
The productivity is just spread out over a ton of projects.

Next week probably won't be that way seeing as how I should start focusing on knocking out presents.

No explanation needed

It's time.

Winterkist Wall Art

It's been so incredibly difficult to not share pics of this sooner! I'm so glad that my stop on the Winterkist Blog Hop is finally here!

Anyone who knows me knows that Halloween reigns supreme in the holiday fabric wars. But man, oh man does it have some competition now. 

I have had my eye on this fabric ever since Monica put that first little gnoma peek on her blog. I've stalked her lovingly checked her site every week since for more glimpses of this line. 

Quite simply, I've been in love. I had email alerts set up at my favorite shop just waiting for the moment when I could get my hands on this fabric. 

And then Katie sent me an invite to this event. 

There might have been some jumping on the bed. 

Okay, there totally was some jumping on the bed.

But what to make?! There were plans. Serious plans. I had lost all my holiday decorations a couple years back and never had the heart to replace them. 

Now I've been envisioning tree pants and stockings. Table runners and door wreaths. All in Winterkist.

My first project tho? It needed to be big. 

It needed to be year round. 

No worries. Those wrinkles got steamed out ;)

I think at 20" x 32" I got the "big" part accomplished. 

This idea started with a snowflake:

And then it needed a friend:

And then it just kept growing. I couldn't stop playing with this fabric. I spent two days working on the little pieces and arranging them. It actually got so big that I had to staple two canvases together to have one big enough! 

I used three different types of applique to make this piece: reverse, raw-edge and needle turn.

If you had told me a couple of years ago that I'd be making a whole piece with applique I would have laughed at you. But I'm really coming to love the technique. Especially reverse.

Besides the fact that it's totally made of Winterkist, the best part of this piece is that the Mr. helped!

I'd been staring at it on the floor when he came home. Those clouds? All him. He asked for some of my scraps and the scissors and cut them all out and placed them.

He also inspired some Happy Little Trees:

And my gnoma now has a year round home in the hallway:

He gets passed by multiple times a day. I make sure to tell him Hello each morning. 

And while it certainly has a winter-y theme, Monica has designed such a bright and happy fabric that there's no question about leaving this piece up. 

Don't forget that the awesome people at Fat Quarter Shop are sponsoring this Blog Hop! Comments on the Winterkist project posts get you entry to win a Fat Quarter Bundle of your choice!

My vote would be for Winterkist. Obviously. 

This stop here is the last one for a chance at the prize this week!

Don't forget to visit these blogs for the last week of the Hop:

Aug 20  Kim at My Go-Go Life
Aug 21 Di at Random Thoughts...do or "di"
Aug 22 Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts
Aug 23 Jenelle at Echinops & Aster
Aug 24  Katie at There & Back

All the Winterkist projects so far have been amazing. I've loved seeing all the different ways we each used the fabric.

I'm rather glad there's still another week of posts. I don't think I could ever get enough of these gnomas.

Farmer Friday - Early Bird edition

Since my stop on the Winterkist Blog Hop is tomorrow I'm jumping in a lil' early with Farmer's Wife blocks for the week.

Trying to avoid going all post crazy on one day.

Blocks 57 & 58:

I'm rather happy that there's only a little bit of wonk in the top corner of 57. Upon first glance it was going to be a trouble maker.

I've learned enough about these blocks though to be able to rearrange the order I put the pieces together. No y-seams for me. 

58 is just fun. Pulling on some of my favorite fabrics but making sure to grab one of the vintage ones as well. 

I like the mix.

Seriously think I should do that more often. 

In other news, glue-bear is getting a home built for him. I had an idea and ran off to Michael's. We'll see how quickly I can put it together. 

WiP Wednesday - Scatterbrains edition

I've got craft ADD.
Pretty badly too.
Yesterday's chaos pics are a good glimpse into the studio right now. I can't just settle on finishing one thing.

I also may have been majorly distracted by a runoff glue pile that I thought looked like a gummi bear.

Really.

See! Look!

Gummi Bear.

Someone already ate his poor arm.

Roundup: 

Completed!:

I'm as surprised as anyone that I managed to get something done. It's Mr. Al's Dresden block. He drew it up. I made it. It's tacked on his wall right now. As is. Although it wasn't nearly as wrinkled once I ironed it. 

New:
I've moved hoops to my nightstand to make sure they get worked on.
One is a present for the BFF and the other is for the Sailor Mouth Swap.

Ongoing: 

Present M:

It's a terrible picture. I know. I apologize for that. It's the shot of it sitting in the corner where I tossed it. I think I sewed myself into a corner with this one. I needed a few days off from it. 

Medallion: 

Shadowy Instagram pic. I'm on a roll!
There's a bit of #sewingfail in this one. But thanks to the new group, I embraced it. So I made two more blocks for this, one the correct way and the other in my "new design choice".
I'm hoping to really push forward on the quilt top now that these are done.

Tetris QAL:

After spending far too much time trying to decide how I wanted to do this one, I just jumped in.

Making a mini scrappy version.

I love that you have to look more closely at it to see the tetris shapes. 

No Progress:
WWC - Although I did find the missing grey fabric. 
Bottled Rainbows

Coming Soon:
Swoon
Tardis
Hush Bella
Mario QAL
ZZQAL


Finishes: 1
New: 1
WiPs: 11

Still in those double digits. It's starting to feel like home.

Soda Pop Winners!

I still can't believe that the QAL is finished.
I suppose seeing my own version on the bed every single day should be some sort of indicator but it doesn't really sink in!

Enough about that though.
How about some winners?

Katy's Choice who gets a $25 gift certificate plus free shipping for that order is:

Red Apple Fizz by Dawn T. 

Mr. Al had a blind pick (he wouldn't even let me be in the same room)

His winner gets a $35 Gift Card to Whipstitch:

Rainbow Slushee by Sharon at Lilabelle Lane

And the Random Draw who gets a $35 gift certificate to Pink Castle Fabrics!:

I put numbers 1-5 into RNG (there was a finished one on Flickr that I counted too)

Which was: 

Marian!

(Psstt..I kinda like Lucy's idea of calling this one Club Soda. That's just my vote ;) )

Thank you everyone again!

And I hope that those of you that are still behind will be finishing them at some point! I'll keep checking out the Flickr group for any progress pics! 

I'll try to shoot y'all an email tonight. Yell at me if I get distracted and forget. I'm the slightest bit scatterbrained this week.